Jorge De La Rosa went nearly two years between victories. He hopes he won't have to wait as long for his next win as the takes the hill for the Colorado Rockies on Saturday night looking to pitch his club to an eighth straight victory in the second of a three-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Held to 13 starts over the previous two seasons because of Tommy John surgery, the left-handed De La Rosa went winless over his first two starts of this year before tossing six scoreless innings of two-hit ball in a 2-1 victory at San Diego on Sunday. De La Rosa walked two and struck out seven in his first victory since May 13, 2011.
After opening the season with three straight road starts, the 32-year-old will face the Diamondbacks on the Coors Field mound and is 6-3 lifetime versus the club with a 2.41 earned run average in 16 games (12 starts).
De La Rosa will look to follow Jhoulys Chacin's stellar outing in Friday's 3-1 victory. Chacin hurled 6 1/3 scoreless innings and also had a sacrifice fly while scattering three hits and fanning five on the mound.
However, the hurler did exit after grabbing his back and side following a pitch in the seventh inning and will be re-evaluated on Saturday.
"I thought he was really good. He's had nice outings all year for us, and that was as good as any of them," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said.
Troy Tulowitzki hit a two-run homer for the Rockies, who scored three runs despite having just three hits. Chris Nelson had a triple and scored on Chacin's sac fly.
It was enough to give the Rockies their longest winning streak since 2011, and their current 12-4 record matches that 2011 squad for the best 16-game start in team history. Colorado will try to win eight straight for the first time since a 10-game run from Sept. 3-12, 2010.
The Rockies have also won the first four of a nine-game homestand and are a perfect 7-0 at Coors Field this season. That is the longest home winning streak to begin a season in franchise history.
Gerardo Parra had two hits and scored Arizona's lone run. Ian Kennedy was touched for three runs on all three of Colorado's hits and struck out six over six frames as his club lost for the third time in four games.
"We never really got ahead of (Chacin). That was probably the best I have seen him throw," D-backs manager Kirk Gibson said.
Gibson will hand the ball on Saturday to Trevor Cahill, who gave up seven runs over 10 2/3 innings in his losing his first two starts to the season. Though the righty was excellent last time out versus the Los Angeles Dodgers, the offense came too late to get him a decision in a 1-0 victory.
Cahill, 25, held the Dodgers scoreless over 7 1/3 frames, fanning four without a walk while scattering six hits. Arizona pulled out the win on Paul Goldschmidt's run-scoring single in the bottom of the ninth.
The right-handed Cahill went 1-2 with a 3.96 ERA in four starts versus the Rockies last season, his first with the Diamondbacks.
Arizona and Colorado are meeting for the first time this season and the Diamondbacks won 10 of the 18 matchups with their NL West foes a year ago.
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